At Bay Area anti-illegal immigration rallies, Steve Giraud smiles and waves at anyone who passes by and is curious enough to read the white poster board he holds by his side or over his head. “Secure Our Borders” it reads in red and blue letters.

The director of the Northern California Minuteman Civil Defense Corps says his friendly greetings always catch people off guard.

“People have a certain perspective of us,” said Giraud, 46, of Petaluma.

Giraud leads approximately 100 members of the anti-illegal immigration group, which is a group similar to the more famous Minuteman Project. Members, who are also part of a national organization, hold marches and rallies, lobby city councils and even travel hundreds of miles to monitor the Mexican border, all in the name of stopping illegal immigration.

“People came to this country legally, they followed the rule, they stood in line, they paid thousands of dollars, they waited to get their visas to come here,” Giraud said. “I think cutting in line is no way to honor those people who came here legitimately.”

This is a busy time for Giraud and other group members. With Congress unable to agree on immigration reform last summer and cities and states trying to fill the void with their own laws, citizen groups such as Giraud’s are expressing their frustration.

There are city sanctuary movements and new state laws to oppose, such as the recently signed California Assembly Bill 976, which prohibits landlords from asking tenants their immigration status. Fall is also one of two seasons of the year when the group goes to Boulevard, a city in San Diego County, to patrol the border.

 “All I know is that for sure the federal government is not doing the job that they were entrusted to do and that was to protect our country,” Giraud said.

And protection is important to Giraud, both in his personal life and with his activities with the corps. He won’t say where his daughters go to school or where his wife works. He is proud to say that his daughters have had firearms training and know how to protect themselves in dangerous situations.

At group events, Giraud is usually the one staying behind the crowd to keep a watchful eye for his colleagues. He is always cautious and looking over his shoulder for what he calls “detractors,” or those who disagree with the group’s beliefs.

But more than just the leader and guard, Giraud is known as a family man and a true patriot, who is not afraid to speak his mind.

“I have a lot of respect for him, for anyone who comes out here and stands up for what he believes in,” said Paul Farmer, a member of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps.

A stay-at-home father, Giraud juggles family while working on his business creating technology products. As the primary caretaker of his children, Giraud gets them to school everyday and attends after-school games. When he talks about his daughters, he is relaxed and laughing.

But when talk turns to immigration, he is all business, describing a recent donation of bulletproof vests for his group’s work on the border, and the night vision goggles they bring to their base in Boulevard called Camp Vigilance .

He said the group’s main duties include observing and reporting people who engage in illegal activities, such crossing the border without documents or transporting drugs. He says there have been times when members have had to rescue immigrants abandoned by their smugglers.

“We go through a firearms training program before you’re allowed to go on night patrol,” he said.

The members are not vigilantes or “wannabe cops,” he said.

“We adhere to strict SOPs,’’ he adds, breaking into a term sometimes used in the military for standard operating procedures. “We observe, report and direct.”

Giraud came to the immigration issue on a circuitous route, first through his father-in-law, Charles Lester King, a University of Colorado at Boulder professor who has worked with anti-illegal immigration Congressman Tom Tancredo, and then through his concerns about the threat of diseases.

He and his wife are concerned about tuberculosis, pneumonia and other highly infectious diseases.  They don’t believe in vaccinating their daughters. And there are periodic rumors of such diseases spreading through Petaluma, where they live.

The more people come into the community, especially through illegal immigration where there are no screenings, the more Giraud said he is worried about the health of his children.

“I came to the conclusion that we’ve got to stop this flow of immigration from all countries,” Giraud said.

For Giraud, the immigration issue also directly impacts the education of his three daughters, ages 11, 15 and 18. At local schools, Giraud said, academic standards are being lowered for those who do not speak English as a first language. He said while his daughters are in excellent tracks in school, he feels there are children caught in the middle.

 Kids at the bottom rung take resources from the people Giraud identifies as middle class.

“They kind of get left behind and forgotten,” he said.

Giraud said he was one of those of middle-class kids growing up.

Born in Illinois in 1961, Giraud was the eldest of four sons. His father, a Lutheran minister, took the family to his assigned parishes from the Midwest to the South and the East Coast.

When Giraud was 13, his father was disciplined for teaching an earlier version of the Bible that was considered more conservative than the traditional King James. Labeled a heretic in the church for sticking to the version, his father was severely criticized by the community. It put so much strain on the family that Giraud’s parents divorced.

Giraud said his father’s experience taught him to always stand up for personal convictions no matter what others say.

“That taught me temerity, don’t give up on what you believe in, do your homework, research and you’ll build a cause,” he said. 

After graduating from high school in Illinois, he took off at 17 to see the world, traveling and hitchhiking through Europe and taking odd jobs for food and survival.  He also traveled throughout the United States and ended up in Boulder, Colo., where he met his future wife.

His own upbringing made Giraud yearn to create a more stable life for his children.

He got married at age 25 and settled in northern California in 1986, first in San Carlos and later in Petaluma, where he felt it was a safer place to raise a family.

In September 2006, he joined the corps and became director in January.  The civil defense corps differs from the Minuteman Project, but the two groups frequently band together for events.

“The Minutemen Civil Defense Corps tends to be better organized and, overall, has more accountability with respect to the upper leadership,” said Charles Birkman, spokesperson for the Golden Gate Minutemen.

At public events, there are those who curse, yell “go home” or “get a job.” Others try to engage corps members into heated debates.

Lisa Stone, one passerby who saw corps members protesting on a street corner in Santa Rosa, considers the group a bunch of loose cannons.

“It seems to me punitive to punish the people who are victims of the laws. We have to instead look at the laws themselves and how they punish all of us,” Stone said to the corps members.

But criticisms don’t deter Giraud from his cause. When asked for his reasons for doing what he does, Giraud said it’s all about duty.

“Protecting one’s country is so clearly defined, it leaves little for misunderstanding,” Giraud said. “If a country is invaded, you have to give back to your country. There’s a sense of duty there.”

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